Humbled by the Battle of Survival

Humbled by the Battle for Survival

Like many people I have been enthralled by the 'Frozen Planet' series on BBC television and shared the feelings of the film makers, who expressed their absolutely humility watching the section with the Bison and Wolf as they engaged in their regular incredible battle for survival. For over an hour the cameramen watched as the enormous young Bison tossed the female wolf around, as if she were a rag doll. The mighty animal pinning the canine to the ground, using its enormous head to immobilise, even crush her and through her cries and squeals she just kept coming.

Having witnessed wolves making a kill for myself, on one of my research trips to Yellowstone, there can be absolutely no doubt that all are fighting for their very lives. There is nothing personal in this action, just essential behaviour. I remember so well watching this epic battle with the greatest respect for both the predator and the prey but when you know that for one to live the other must die we finally appreciate just how precious food is to all of nature's predators, to what lengths they must be prepared to go to obtain and keep their food. This includes our own dogs.

It was clear that after an encounter lasting over an hour, both the Wolf and the Bison were completely exhausted but neither could give in and finally the wolf used all of her skill and knowledge to deliver the fatal bite and then held back and waited.

The Bison was a great prize for her and her mate and could provide them with food for at least a week, as long as another predator did not come along to take it from them. Then they would have to go through the whole process all over again.

Why I choose to mention this is that knowing, not only what they are prepared, by nature, to do I remain totally amazed that some humans honestly believe that taking the food from a dog is a good idea and then wonder why they get bitten.

This is one of the reasons that with 'Amichien� Bonding' we encourage owners to simply eat something small immediately before the dog is fed, which we call 'Gesture Eating'. This gives the dog a very clear signal that you are the one that have worked for and provided the food, how impressive is that? However, you must avoid 'pretending' to eat, as a dog is far too smart and will see right through any faking.

This brings me naturally on to the reason that dog behavioural problems are on the increase, which is because people attempt to 'improve' something that is successful in its simple form, for their own reasons. Sadly for dogs, many people really believe that an 'improvement' must make a thing or method better, when the truth is that the more you add, the more you actually dilute (weaken) a perfectly functional process. The more you add, the more you confuse and the more you add, the greater the resulting failure rate.

I am reminded of the 'improvements' made to a motorised two wheeled vehicle very common in the 1960's. I refer to the scooter and the 'Mods' habit of adding more and more headlights to the front of these machines and how 'wonderful' they were thought to look to many people. Truth was, they looked ridiculous, overloaded the electrical system, handled terribly and cost a fortune if they were dropped. Now, 40 years on, motorbikes and bicycles remain a common sight on the roads, simple and beautiful, where are all the faddy scooters?

The life of a dog is very simple too, the imperative being to stay alive and once this is achieved then they can relax, play and even venture away from home. Keep the ethos simple by avoiding unnecessary equipment, gadgets, words and requests and you will always succeed with this most noble of species.

Jan Fennell

7th December 2011

Wolves Hunting Bison